Deux: Arrrghhh!
Duchess: Stop that, Deux! You are so picky!
Deux: I can't help it, Dash is being so annoying!
QOC: What are you doing, Dash?
Dash: I'm putting on my coat.
QOC: Well, Deux, if someone is not trying to bother you and it won't cause you permanent harm, it's best to just ignore it. Life is much smoother that way.
Deux: I can't ignore it when it bothers me!
QOC: The trick is to think about something else. Like how many prime numbers there are smaller than 100.
Deux: How many prime numbers smaller than 100 . . . most odd numbers are primes . . . except the ones that end in five, like 15, 25, 35, 45 . . . .
Duchess: Arrrrrgh!
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Boxed In
The house is full of boxes. Empty boxes. It should be full of full boxes, but I have been over at the other house painting.
The twins helped me pick out the color for the library. (It was going to be the schoolroom, but doesn't library sound better? Besides, I don't think the piano is going down that hall, so we're going to have to have most of the bookcases in there.) We took a curtain to the hardware store to match. I kept being timid and picking the lighter versions, but they insisted on the more intense. I wanted something warm and honey-colored and so finally I just went with them.
Then I started putting it up on the walls. Against the existing ice blue. It didn't looked honey-colored. It looked orange. (This, by the way, is why I don't bother buying a sample and painting it on the walls. I *still* can't be sure what it will feel like.) I was terrified, but I painted grimly on. I finally got to the rolling part, in which the ducklings gleefully participated (only later did I reflect on just how many tiny spatters I would be scraping off the laminate flooring, but then, they probably weren't any messier than I would have been solo). And behold! When it covered the wall entirely, it was honey-colored and all was well.
Although with that color and the name library, I'm thinking the room really needs a walnut table and some wing-backed leather chairs. But I have a feeling that I'll have to settle for a folding table and chairs for a good long while.
Then I did DOB's new alcove, for which he chose chocolate brown and light gray. It's a bit gloomy, but the brown really is tasty looking. Especially on the trim, which looks pretty much exactly like a very long chocolate bar.
Anyway, it's all mostly done now. At least the part that might be covered up by furniture. Flooring is going down and new wider doors are going in (and I'm sure I won't get *those* painted, but then, they'll never have furniture in the way of painting them).
And now I've really, really got to finish packing. According to the plan, we'll be in the new house by this time next week. I don't see how it will all happen. But it needs to happen.
The twins helped me pick out the color for the library. (It was going to be the schoolroom, but doesn't library sound better? Besides, I don't think the piano is going down that hall, so we're going to have to have most of the bookcases in there.) We took a curtain to the hardware store to match. I kept being timid and picking the lighter versions, but they insisted on the more intense. I wanted something warm and honey-colored and so finally I just went with them.
Then I started putting it up on the walls. Against the existing ice blue. It didn't looked honey-colored. It looked orange. (This, by the way, is why I don't bother buying a sample and painting it on the walls. I *still* can't be sure what it will feel like.) I was terrified, but I painted grimly on. I finally got to the rolling part, in which the ducklings gleefully participated (only later did I reflect on just how many tiny spatters I would be scraping off the laminate flooring, but then, they probably weren't any messier than I would have been solo). And behold! When it covered the wall entirely, it was honey-colored and all was well.
Although with that color and the name library, I'm thinking the room really needs a walnut table and some wing-backed leather chairs. But I have a feeling that I'll have to settle for a folding table and chairs for a good long while.
Then I did DOB's new alcove, for which he chose chocolate brown and light gray. It's a bit gloomy, but the brown really is tasty looking. Especially on the trim, which looks pretty much exactly like a very long chocolate bar.
Anyway, it's all mostly done now. At least the part that might be covered up by furniture. Flooring is going down and new wider doors are going in (and I'm sure I won't get *those* painted, but then, they'll never have furniture in the way of painting them).
And now I've really, really got to finish packing. According to the plan, we'll be in the new house by this time next week. I don't see how it will all happen. But it needs to happen.
Thursday, March 06, 2014
A Sense of Closure
This is the week in which we had Better Close, Or Else. We have permission to stay in this house until the end of the month, but there are several modifications that must be made to the new house before we can move in (ramp, wider doorways, hard flooring). So we need time, and help. And then we have to move itself. This is the first time we have bought and sold all at once and the back-to-back remodeling is grueling.
While waiting around I have been trying to pack, with Rocketboy's help when I can get him. (Wondergirl is also moving this month. And then he's moving after her. And then he starts school.) Progress is slow and boxes are elusive, though family members and friends in distant parts of the country have volunteered them if we come pick them up.
Anyway, we did manage to get documents signed and our current house sold. Right after it closed, the sink clogged completely during the dinner dishes. A late night trip to Walmart for Draino had no effect, other than making the house smell like bleach and shining up the sink.
In the morning His Majesty came and disassembled the plumbing to disclose a mysterious white spongy substance blocking the entire pipe. Then I helped him load the truck to go to the dump. Then I started in on the belated supper and breakfast dishes and started the dishwasher.
Finally we sat down to start school (yes, we're plowing on with school, partly because I'm stubborn that way and partly because it's rainy so what else will keep them out of trouble?) and just as we got some momentum going, the dishwasher started spewing white suds all over the floor. I shoved some towels underneath and we carried on.
Then DOB called to let me know it was time to sign documents for the new house. So I fed the kids a quick lunch and we dashed off and signed away. We returned home and I disassembled the dishwasher enough to clean out the clogged drain and started in on the rest of the dishes. We had snack and story and the kids were settled down to computer time and I was starting supper when I happened to glance at my phone and see I had missed a call much earlier in the afternoon..
I checked my voice mail and it was the title agent. She had skipped having me sign one document. Could I come in and sign it by five? I looked at the clock--it was 4:50. I told the kids to pause everything and get in the car. We zipped out, took the long way around to avoid the left turn of doom at rush hour, and pulled into the title agency with three minutes to spare. The agent had left but someone else found the paper for me.
Then we finally went home again, and found I had even remembered to turn off the stove.
While waiting around I have been trying to pack, with Rocketboy's help when I can get him. (Wondergirl is also moving this month. And then he's moving after her. And then he starts school.) Progress is slow and boxes are elusive, though family members and friends in distant parts of the country have volunteered them if we come pick them up.
Anyway, we did manage to get documents signed and our current house sold. Right after it closed, the sink clogged completely during the dinner dishes. A late night trip to Walmart for Draino had no effect, other than making the house smell like bleach and shining up the sink.
In the morning His Majesty came and disassembled the plumbing to disclose a mysterious white spongy substance blocking the entire pipe. Then I helped him load the truck to go to the dump. Then I started in on the belated supper and breakfast dishes and started the dishwasher.
Finally we sat down to start school (yes, we're plowing on with school, partly because I'm stubborn that way and partly because it's rainy so what else will keep them out of trouble?) and just as we got some momentum going, the dishwasher started spewing white suds all over the floor. I shoved some towels underneath and we carried on.
Then DOB called to let me know it was time to sign documents for the new house. So I fed the kids a quick lunch and we dashed off and signed away. We returned home and I disassembled the dishwasher enough to clean out the clogged drain and started in on the rest of the dishes. We had snack and story and the kids were settled down to computer time and I was starting supper when I happened to glance at my phone and see I had missed a call much earlier in the afternoon..
I checked my voice mail and it was the title agent. She had skipped having me sign one document. Could I come in and sign it by five? I looked at the clock--it was 4:50. I told the kids to pause everything and get in the car. We zipped out, took the long way around to avoid the left turn of doom at rush hour, and pulled into the title agency with three minutes to spare. The agent had left but someone else found the paper for me.
Then we finally went home again, and found I had even remembered to turn off the stove.
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